Over the past two and a half years, BloomBoard has been working with hundreds of organizations (including districts, regional education service providers, and state departments of education) to help them transition to a competency-based model of professional development. While we work with each of these organizations to provide solutions to a wide variety of problems for educators across their organizations, using competency-based professional development in many creative ways, we have discovered four themes throughout all of these very different implementations, which we call the BloomBoard VIPS - Vision, Incentives, Phases, and Supports. When these principles are executed throughout the implementation, we have found that organizations are more likely to find that educators buy-into the idea of competency-based professional learning and follow through with building a portfolio of evidence to show their individual learning. The VIPS require focus, careful planning and organization, as well as clear and frequent communication across all levels of the organization, and will provide a roadmap which leads to a successful transition towards competency-based professional development.

This is a guest post written by Dr. Ann Newman, Director of Instruction at the School District of South Milwaukee.

Take a moment to reflect on your cultural readiness.

"If we are asking educators to provide differentiated and personalized learning experiences for students, it only makes sense that we help districts provide teachers with that same level of personalization in their professional learning.”

Last month, BloomBoard Co-founder and President, Jason Lange, had the opportunity to speak at the TEDX Wilmington conference. The conference theme was Education Possible and brought together educators, students, parents, and other community members to explore the positive impact that education has on young minds as well as some areas in need of vast improvements.

One of the biggest challenges faced in education today is understanding how instructors can best communicate information to their students while ensuring it has been absorbed and can be applied in practice. Over the years it has become more and more evident that the status quo just isn’t working. As a result, we’re seeing a very exciting shift from the traditional learning models of the past, towards a competency-based learning model that allows for better learning, retention, and application.